Strike could delay trash pickup

Waste Management officials said Thursday that negotiations with garbage truck mechanics are progressing, even as they make plans to provide trash collection in the event of a strike.

The Teamsters union representing the mechanics contends that the company walked away from the negotiating table earlier in the day, setting the stage for a possible strike by sympathetic drivers as soon as today in north King and south Snohomish counties.

A strike by those drivers over their own contract was averted when an agreement reached in May was signed last month. The mechanics, meanwhile, have been working without a contract since Dec. 31.

The two sides issued conflicting messages Thursday about the status of negotiations, the party responsible for the hang-ups, even the number of mechanics affected -- the union says 45, the company says 35.

The mechanics work at Waste Management facilities that serve 175,000 households, said Jerry Hardebeck, the company's public sector services director. None of those households are in Seattle, he said.

Dan Scott, secretary-treasurer of Local 174, said the mechanics maintain several hundred trucks that serve close to 1 million residents.

Waste Management is making plans to provide service to such essential facilities as hospitals and nursing homes in the event of a strike.

The Houston-based company said services to other customers could be delayed until replacement workers could be brought in.

Should a strike occur, customers are asked to put garbage and recycling out as usual. If it is not collected, customers should put out twice the amount the following week "when service should be back to normal," the company said.

"Waste Management's behavior, in my eyes, can only be described as reckless and irresponsible," Scott said. He said Waste Management negotiators walked away from the table Thursday even though the union warned them that doing so would put customers and the company "at risk."

"The ball's in the company's court," Scott said. "If it remains there, we're talking hours instead of days ... to see a disruption in service."

Hardebeck said the union's characterization of negotiations is "categorically untrue" and that new talks are scheduled for Monday. The company hopes an agreement can be reached within the next one or two sets of negotiations, he said.

Waste Management's offer would make the workers "the highest-paid mechanics in the industry in Western Washington," Hardebeck said. Despite that, the company said that the needs of customers apparently have taken "a back seat to the union's unrealistic demands."

Hardebeck said the unresolved issues are the usual ones: wages, pensions, health and welfare.

Scott said the company is asking mechanics to begin paying for their medical benefits. While the company told the union the average cost to mechanics would be $130 a month, he said, it rises to $285 a month for family coverage.

Waste Management has a "stall and delay" strategy in negotiations, Scott said, citing the garbage drivers' contract the union accepted May 7. Waste Management did not sign the contract until last month.

However, Hardebeck said the union was responsible for the delay. He said Waste Management did not receive final documents from union lawyers until Aug. 2.

P-I reporter John Iwasaki can be reached at 206-448-8096 or johniwasaki@seattlepi.com.

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